She Misses Him
by Vamptress RayZor
Summary: One-shot. Based off of the song "She Misses Him" by Tim Rushlow. 26 years in the future, some of the AVALANCHE members have already died. This is the funeral of one of them, the thoughts of their spouse and child. Please R&R.


**_She Misses Him_**  
  
_By YK2_  
  
A/N: For those who have ever never heard the song "She Misses Him" by Tim Rushlow, you should. This story is based off of that song. I heard it on a local country station the other day for the first time in who knows how long. It was dedicated to Mr. Ronald Reagan, and I thought 'Wouldn't that be a good song to base a FF7 fic off of?' So, this one-shot was inspired by the song "She Misses Him" by Tim Rushlow.  
  
_She shaves his face  
She combs his hair  
She helps him find his rockin' chair  
She cooks his meals  
She wipes his mouth  
And the window that he's lookin' out  
She reads him books  
She speaks his name  
Oh every day is much the same  
She sighs that sigh from deep within  
The one that says  
She misses him_   
  
Dark brown eyes gazed wearily out of the window. For nearly three whole days, she had been grieving. Her daughter and grandson had come to visit and help her get everything in order for the funeral. But, Hells, Lacey was her father's child and rather clueless about gil. She only knew how to spend gil on more machinery, extra parts, and whatever project she decided to start.  
  
Shera stood slowly, her back aching and heart feeling as if it would break in half.  
  
"Mama?"  
  
She let her dark-eyes gaze fall onto their blonde, blue-eyed tomboy daughter, now wearing a long, black dress. "Yeah, Lacey?"  
  
The young woman let a tear slide down her cheek. "I miss him..."  
  
As much as she had cried in the previous three nights, Shera Highwind somehow mustered up more tears. "Me too, babe."  
  
A short, dark-haired woman stepped in, a baby on her hip. "Sorry to interrupt, but Seth wanted Mommy, Lacey."  
  
Shera wiped her tears away. "Oh, Yuffie. You were just as close to him as Lacey. Dear, I hope you know that he thought of you as a daughter too."  
  
The 42-year-old Wutain woman had to hold her breath to supress the tears. "Yeah, I know. He was a father to me, just like Barret." She handed the 18-month baby to his mother and swept a strand of gray hair out of her stormy eyes. "Tifa's here. Cloud too... Come on, we'll go visit before we leave for the church."  
  
She smiled at her secondary daughter and followed the hyperactive woman. Lacey, now 23, followed her 59-year-old mother. Seth tugged at his mother's long, curly blonde hair and she thought about how her son would grow up without a male role-model, her husband and father both dead. Seth woul never have his grandpa to play with, and it made her want to cry even more.  
  
A slowly-graying man with spectacles over Mako blue eyes smiled a sad smile of pure understanding. He knew what it was like to lose a love. To his right was the still thin, still beautiful woman with only two or three strands of well-hidden gray hair. A red beast sat on the floor beside the standing ever-young man with glowing red eyes and long raven hair. This, with the addition of Yuffie, was the remainder of AVALANCHE, the Planet's Heroes.  
  
Cloud Strife, a graying man of 47, was the owner of a weapon shop in Kalm. An ex-bar wench and martial arts instructor of 46-years-old described Tifa Lockheart perfectly. Nanaki, though 74, looked exactly the same, as did Vincent Valentine, whose age can only be guessed around 73, give or take a few years. Barret Wallace had died three years previous to this particular meeting in an automobile accident at the age of 58. Aeris Gainsborough had died 26 years before at the young age of 23.  
  
Only Tifa, Yuffie, and Cid had actually started families. Yuffie married a wealthy lord of good lineage from Mideel and had a son named Jacob Earl Shintz Jr. Tifa married a male model from Costa del Sol and they had twins, Derek Joseph Carter and Sara Renee Carter. Cid returned to Rocket Town and married Shera one year after the Meteor Incident. Two years after that, they had a daughter that they named Lacey Michelle Highwind. She was the biggest tomboy to ever be born and, it was joked, she came out cursing and with a monkey wrench in her hand.  
  
_She misses his gentle touch  
And the way that he used to make her laugh  
She misses the man he was in all of those old photographs  
So strong, so kind, so sweet, so smart  
The man that stole her very heart  
She misses him_  
  
"I'm sorry, everyone," Shera said softly. "Would you like some tea?" Yuffie caught her arm and Mrs. Cid Highwind looked at her. The Wutain woman slowly shook her head and the tears welled up in the older woman's eyes once again.  
  
Vincent shifted uneasily, as did Nanaki on the floor. Vincent was ageless and Nanaki aged slower than humans. Both hated to see their friends, comrades, grow old and die. Tifa silenced them with 'The Look' that she used to give when they were still on the road.  
  
"Oh, Mama," Lacey said softly, hugging her mother in a one-armed hug, Seth in her other arm. "It'll be okay. He's gone to see the flower girl, like we'll all do some day."  
  
Cloud's perfect blue eyes filled with tears at the mention of Aeris.  
  
"I know," Shera replied softly. "But... I miss him. I know it's better than him suffering, but still..."  
  
For nearly a decade, Cid Highwind had been losing his memory. Altzheimer's, they called it. It started with not-so-familiar people. Then, he couldn't remember the names of tools. Soon after that, he lost all interest in mechanics. For awhile, he only recognized his wife, daughter, and close friends. Then, it was only Shera, Lacey, Yuffie, Barret, and Vincent. After Barret's death, he couldn't even remember Vincent, who visited every day. Then, he could only remember Shera and talked as if it was before his AVALANCHE days. Finally, six months before he left them, he couldn't walk, talk, feed himself... He was practically a human vegetable. He didn't know anyone and never made any noises.  
  
Shera shaved his face, combed his hair, helped him eat, wiped his face. She spoke his name frequently in a hopeless effort to help him remember. Occasionally, he would mumble about space or Sephiroth, or even a rare insult directed at Yuffie or Shera.  
  
Three days before he died, Cid talked about visiting Aeris's grave sometime. Shera had known then that the end was near. He died in his sleep, clutching Shera's hand, a picture of AVALANCHE on his bed-side stand.  
  
Shera walked with her daughters and grandson and friends to the small church where the funeral would be. Her dark-eyes gaze rested on her husband's open casket. His face looked so peaceful, something she hadn't seen in too long. "I'll be along shortly, captain," she whispered softly to his deceased body. "I promise that, when my time comes, I'll be along. Probably late as always, but I'll come."  
  
"Mama?" She looked over, her dark eyes meeting Lacey's blue-gray. "Cloud and Vincent are gonna help carry Pa's casket. Are we walkin' with them or do ya wanna ride in my truck?"  
  
The woman nodded. "We'll walk. The captain would want it that way."  
  
Lacey felt more tears sting her pretty blue-gray eyes. "Probably would." When her mother walked away, the young woman placed a yellow rose on top of her father's casket. "I love you, captain. Please, take care of Kerry. No tortuin' him. But, then again, I bet ya don't remember him, do ya?"  
  
With a sigh, she walked away. Her husband, Kerry Jordan, had been murdered in the slums of Junon the night she went into labor with Seth. Their son was born thirty minutes before they found her husband's body. Cid hadn't known who Kerry or Seth was. He was too far gone by that time.  
  
_His children come on Saturday  
There at his feet  
His grandkids play  
It's sad they don't know him at all  
He's just the one they call grandpa  
They take out the trash  
They mow his lawn  
Things he can't do since he's been gone  
She's grateful that they're pitchin' in  
And like everyone  
She misses him   
_  
Yuffie came up next, a cracked mastered Ice materia in her hand. "Hey, old man," she said in a hoarse whisper. "Thought I'd return your materia." She placed the cracked green orb on top of the flowers already on his casket. "According to my religion, all debts owed to you are to be repaid now. The debt that I owe you for being like a father to me can never be repaid. Tell Aeris 'hey' for me."  
  
A metal claw rested on her shoulder and she looked up to see Vincent. He placed a blood red rose on the others and made a cross with his human hand, then turned away with the woman.  
  
Tifa placed a white rose on the casket and Nanaki and Cloud said their farewells. After a short service, Cloud, Vincent, and four of Cid's crew members carried the casket down the road to a willow tree a good way in the back of the Highwind household.  
  
The five friends, Shera, Lacey, and Seth watched the old pilot be buried. Everything seemed so surreal to them.   
  
The pilot who had taught Yuffie every curse word in the book, who had called Vincent "Mr. Freaky-Ass-Vampire," who had helped Tifa get over Cloud, who had made fun of Cloud on numerous occasions, had missed Aeris just as much as the others, cursed Reeve out on global television, lost a bet with Barret on how long it would take for Yuffie to get married (6 years), helped save the world, gotten married, and had a kid. The man who had been one of three first men in space (Cloud and Vincent were the other two). The arrogant, cursing, chain-smoking, tea-loving old pilot who was easily angered and hillarious when drunk was actually gone. He was truly dead.  
  
_She misses his gentle touch  
And the way he used to make her laugh  
She misses the man he was  
In all of those old photographs  
So strong, so kind, so sweet, so smart  
The man that stole her very heart  
She misses him.  
And, yes, they're still together  
After all these years  
But sometimes you can almost feel  
The sadness in her tears   
_  
His wife slowly sank into her bed that night, her eyes too tired to even allow tears to fall. His daughter and second daughter slept in the same room, his grandson with Lacey.  
  
So many memoreis were revisited that night. Memories of Cloud getting told to sit down and drink his goddamn tea. Of the Highwind going warp speed toward the Northern Crater and Yuffie puking. Memories of Cid cursing loudly, even in his sleep.  
  
_She misses his gentle touch  
And the way he used to make her laugh  
She misses the man he was  
In all of those old photographs  
So strong, so kind, so sweet, so smart  
The man that stole her very heart.  
She misses him_   
  
In the Life Stream, a 32-year-old Cid Highwind and a 23-year-old Aeris Gainsborough laughed and played cards, the same memories going through their minds. While he thought the Ancient wasn't paying attention, he thanked Shera.  
  
"I know you'll get here eventually. Until then, take care of Lacey and Yuffie. and spoil my grandbaby rotten." He grinned wickedly at a short, stocky man with short dark hair and dark eyes. "Yer Kerry, eh? Well, I'm Lacey's old man."  
  
_She misses his gentle touch  
And the way he used to make her laugh  
She misses the man he was  
In all of those old photographs  
So strong, so kind, so sweet, so smart  
The man that stole her very heart  
She misses him...   
_  
**A/N: I know, it's not great... But hey! I wrote a one-shot! And I can't really continue off of it! .... That's a first for me... Please review, everyone! -YK2-**


End file.
